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Mentor
An older or more experienced individual looks after you and comes to your aid occasionally. Whatever the case is, you can get assistance from your mentor, although his favor may be fickle. When you call on your mentor, you risk a certain number of Traits to achieve a given effect. A lowly one-Trait mentor probably knows only little more than you, while a five-Trait mentor may well have luminous standing within your sect and a wide range of potent powers. Regardless, taking up your mentor’s valuable time is costly. You must engage in a Simple Test when you call on your mentor. If you succeed, your mentor deigns to aid you. If you tie, your mentor grants you assistance, but he requires something in return. If you fail, your mentor demands the favor first before helping. In any case, you can call on your mentor only once in any given game session (or CIS), and only if you have an appropriate way to contact him or her. The level of aid that your mentor can give depends on the number of Traits you have in this Background (and Storyteller approval, of course): *For one Trait, your mentor is privy to a single piece of specialized information at a level above your own. If you have Wraith Lore x2, for instance, your mentor can be called on to gift you with one piece of information from Wraith Lore x3. *For two Traits, you can borrow one level of Contacts, Influence, Resources, or Status from your mentor for the duration of the game. If your mentor is very powerful (four or five Traits), you can borrow two levels. *Having two Traits allows your mentor to instruct you in a Basic power that you do not know. *For three Traits, your mentor can instruct you in an Intermediate power that you do not know. *Also at a cost of three Traits, your mentor can train you in the ways of a special Hobby/Professional/Expert Ability that is outside your normal ken, such as Mage Lore. *For four Traits, your mentor can train you in an Advanced power beyond your grasp. *For five Traits, your mentor can train you in the phenomenal powers of the elders, if you are puissant enough to learn such secrets. Since mentors can prove unbalancing by providing too many different powers over the course of a long game, the Storyteller may lower your total Mentor Traits as you call on his knowledge. This decrease represents the fact that as your character learns the mentor’s secrets; the mentor has less left to teach. No cannon White Wolf character can be used as a Mentor (except in specific instances approved by the Storytellers). Players are encouraged to give input on what they want their mentor to be like, but ultimately the Storytellers create each mentor using specific guidelines. Note: The Mentor Background does not go over 5 in VampCat. Notes Tremere do not have to throw the test to see if their mentor will assist them. Their mentors will always help them, if possible, and will always require something in return. Get of Fenris mentors will only advise, never protect. Availability This Background is available to most characters. *Glass Walkers may not have this Background. *Nagah may not have this Background. *Shadow Lords may not have this Background. Category:Backgrounds